Gibson Air Service opens

Gibson Air Service has opened at Bend Municipal Airport (KBND) in Oregon.

The company is owned by Steve Gibson, the son of the late Pat and Marge Gibson. In 1950 Pat and his wife started the very first FBO in Bend. Steve has brought back his parents’ legacy by reopening Gibson Air in the old red Quonset Hut, providing aircraft maintenance. The same building was the hangar for the business, and Steve and his siblings grew up in a house that was located where the city-owned FBO building now sits.

Gibson Air Service offers a professional maintenance staff headed by Mick Guinn, who has more than 30 years experience in aviation maintenance from the Army working on helicopters, to a Lancair/Columbia factory mechanic (not just factory trained), to experimentals and even the big iron. He specializes in composite repair and has decades of experience working on all types of general aviation aircraft.

An affiliated company, NW Professional Aviation Services, provides the flight services, pre/post maintenance flights and flight instruction. It is headed by Scott Fordham, who has experience as Lead Factory Flight Instructor at Columbia Aircraft, service in corporate turbo prop aircraft to large multi crew jets, years of flight instruction, and as the acting Chief Flight Instructor at The Flightshop Inc.

Gibson Air Service will soon launch a pilot supply store with charts, flight instruction materials, headsets, and other products for pilots, company officials said.